In the meantime, our dauntless scientists are forging the path to a new tomorrow. For instance, they are warning about global warming-caused kidney stones. I'm fighting the temptation to make a range of extraordinarily crude jokes.

Retail sales are really quite poor. The trading day holiday adjusted numbers over the year:

June 2008: 384,211June 2007: 372,878 Difference: 11,333

Now looking at components for June both years:

Gas 2008: 45,971Gas 2007: 36,910 Difference: 9,061

Groceries 2008: 44,062Groceries 2007: 41,631Difference: 2,431

I believe you all can draw the logical conclusion from here. It's no surprise that motor vehicles and parts sales are down over 10% on the year.